FORTIFICATIONS
There is no evidence that Beverley was ever
walled and its defences in the Middle Ages
consisted of a ditch, presumably with an internal
earthen bank, around part of the town and gates
or 'bars' across the main roads. The 'great ditch
of the town', on the west side, was first mentioned
c. 1169. (fn. 74) It was called Bar dike by 1246 or 1247,
when part of it apparently lay on the south side
of the town near the archbishop's park. (fn. 75) The
earliest gate recorded was North bar, and there
was evidently a second bar there beyond the
town ditch. 'The northern bar (aquilo barra)
towards Molescroft' was mentioned in the late
12th or early 13th century. (fn. 76) A street, land, and
houses were all at different times described as
lying between the two northern bars, (fn. 77) and plots
of land 'above the Bar dike between the northern
bars' were recorded in 1329. (fn. 78) Newbegin bar
was first mentioned in the early 15th century,
when it was alternatively called West bar. (fn. 79) The
gate later called Keldgate bar existed, as South
bar, by c. 1250, when the street leading to it was
called Southbargate. (fn. 80) It was repaired in 13445, (fn. 81) and other 14th-century references show
that it stood at the end of Keldgate. (fn. 82) It was
alternatively known as Keldgate bar by 1386 and
the earlier name was last used in the mid 15th
century. (fn. 83) Keldgate, Newbegin, and North bars
were apparently the only substantial gates to be
built. (fn. 84)
Despite the existence of gates and ditch, Beverley was presumably not defensible in 1322
when the town had to be ransomed from the
Scots. (fn. 85) It was probably later the same year that
the burgesses petitioned the king for confirmation of earlier charters which they wrongly
claimed allowed the enclosure of the town with
a wall and ditch; the king agreed to consult the
archbishop of York and inspect the charters (fn. 86)
but a confirmation made in 1323 did not mention
the defences. (fn. 87) A commission of array issued for
Beverley during the war with France in 1371
because of the inadequate fortifications (defectum
munitionum) suggests that nothing more had
been done. (fn. 88)
Much work was carried out, however, by the
town during the troubled years of Henry IV's
reign. The mostly brick-built 'new bar' which
cost £30 in 1405 (fn. 89) may have been a rebuilding
of Keldgate bar. (fn. 90) Wooden bars were also made
in 1405: although they were presumably insubstantial barriers they were nevertheless intended
'for the defence of the town'. (fn. 91) The defences
may also have included chains drawn across the
bars and main streets, though the chains were
also used to keep carts off the paved streets. (fn. 92)
After the unsuccessful rebellion of the Percys in
1408 Newbegin bar was repaired in 1409-10.
More important, North bar was then rebuilt in
brick at a cost of c. £100, a small part of
which was given by townspeople. (fn. 93) The earlier
structure, already two-storeyed, (fn. 94) was abutted
on the west side by a thick stone wall which was
retained during the rebuilding. (fn. 95) The brickwork
of the new bar incorporates cusped ogee-headed
niches, decorative string courses, crow-stepped
battlements, and rib-vaulting over the archway,
which retains its portcullis slot. (fn. 96)
Wooden bars erected in the mid 15th century
were probably primarily defensive but they may
also have served for the collection of tolls. Men
were paid both for keeping the bars and for
their work on market days, (fn. 97) while pavage was
collected at Keldgate, Newbegin, and North
bars, besides other places around the town,
including Norwood. (fn. 98)
Wooden bars mentioned in the mid-century
included one made next to the windmill in
Norwood in 1433-4 and rebuilt or repaired in
1445-6; (fn. 99) Norwood mill stood near the junction
with Mill Lane. (fn. 1) A timber bar, evidently standing on the outer bank of Bar dike at North bar,
was also made or repaired in 1433-4. (fn. 2) The
existence, as in that case, of more than one
barrier may account for an individual bar being
referred to as 'bars' or 'gates'. (fn. 3) During disturbances in the town in 1445-6 watch was kept at
Keldgate, Newbegin, North, and Norwood bars
and at another bar then made at the Eastgate
end of Trinity Lane. Other bars were erected in
or near Friars Lane, in Old Newbegin (now
Morton Lane), and at the end of Bradwell Lane
(perhaps Kitchen Lane). Turnstiles were also
put up on the western side of the town, at the
ends of St. Giles Lane (now Champney Road)
and Wood Lane, with earthen walls on either
side of them; similar walls were built in Dead
Lane, Friars Lane, and the unidentified Payn
Lane. (fn. 4) Another bar may have stood in the
unidentified Turnpike Lane. (fn. 5) Old Newbegin bar
was recorded for the last time in 1450-1, when
another bar was made next to the beck in Aldgate
(now part of Hull Road). (fn. 6)
In. 1460-1, the year of Henry VI's deposition,
men were paid for keeping Newbegin, North,
Norwood, and South bars, and another in the
unidentified Belman Lane; one or more timber
bars were also set up in Friars Lane. Belman
Lane, Friars Lane, and Norwood bars were not
mentioned again. There is no evidence that
Beverley was able to resist either the Lancastrian
or the Yorkist forces and the town was occupied
and plundered during the year. (fn. 7) A bar in Aldgate
was made again in 1494-5, when it was described
as 'behind Hellgarths'. (fn. 8)
Bar dike was recorded several times in the
15th century. In 1423-4 the bridge carrying the
road over it outside North bar was repaired with
stone and timber (fn. 9) and in 1460-1 the ditch was
improved in front of the bars. (fn. 10) Much work
involving the use of bricks, timber, and iron was
done on Bar dike in 1494. (fn. 11) Recent excavation
of the ditch east of North bar showed no evidence
of an internal upcast bank, suggesting that the
ditch may have been a natural watercourse.
Indications of an earlier revetment, perhaps of
faggots, were found but the ditch had evidently
not been kept in good repair in the later Middle
Ages. The ditch had also been encroached upon
by the digging of pits in the 15th and 16th
centuries. (fn. 12) Parts of the ditch outside Newbegin
and Keldgate bars were let, presumably for the
herbage, in the 16th and 17th centuries. (fn. 13)
The openness of the town was apparent once
more in its occupation and abandonment by a
rebel force in 1537. (fn. 14) Leland found no evidence
of walls c. 1540 but only Keldgate, Newbegin,
and North bars: 'fair gates of brick'; (fn. 15) The
defences were again attended to in the mid 17th
century. An order of 1642 for the making of a
broad ditch, crossed only by footbridges, at the
western end of each lane into Westwood may
have been for the rehabilitation of the town
ditch. The three bars were also ordered to be
repaired and kept locked at night. (fn. 16) Nevertheless,
the following year a force of c. 900 men was held
to be too small to secure the town, which was
then plundered by the royalists. (fn. 17) Bar dike was
scoured in 1646-7 and again in 1656-7 (fn. 18) and the
earthen bank was referred to implicitely in the
1670s and 1680s, when mention was made of
'the bulwark ditch' near Wood Lane. (fn. 19) Fears of
a Roman Catholic rising caused watch to be kept
again at the three bars in 1678. (fn. 20)
The exact location of Keldgate and Newbegin
bars was recorded in 1747. (fn. 21) The brick-built
Keldgate bar had a flat, rounded archway flanked
by gabled buttresses with a room above it.
Newbegin bar, also two-storeyed and of brick,
had a pointed archway and a flat, battlemented
roof. (fn. 22) It was in a dangerous condition by 1735,
when repairs were ordered, and it was demolished in 1790. (fn. 23) Keldgate bar, for long let by the
town, was taken down in 1808 because of its
ruinous state. (fn. 24) A footway was made along the
eastern side of North bar soon after 1792, when
adjoining houses were rebuilt. (fn. 25) Rendering was
removed from the bar and a footway was added
along the western side c. 1867. (fn. 26)
Much of the town ditch had evidently been
filled in by the late 17th century and the name
Bar dike may then, as later, have been restricted
to the largest remnant of it, a rectangular pond
west of North bar. (fn. 27) 'Bar dike outside North
bar' was dressed in the 1680s and in 1734. (fn. 28)
It was described in 1832 as an unwholesome
nuisance and a hindrance to drainage, (fn. 29) and it
was culverted in 1858. (fn. 30) That part of the ditch
which carried a stream from Westwood into Bar
dike was culverted in the later 18th or early 19th
century. (fn. 31) On the western side of the town parts
of the ditch were culverted c. 1858 (fn. 32) and c.
1881, (fn. 33) and the rest was filled in at the making
of the Leases c. 1930. (fn. 34)
The course of the town ditch from North bar
to Keldgate bar is well known. From North bar
the ditch evidently continued eastwards towards
Pighill Lane. (fn. 35) It then drained to Beverley
beck, (fn. 36) supposedly by way of Pighill Lane sewer
and Walker beck, which have been suggested as
the course of part of the town ditch. (fn. 37) There is,
however, no evidence that those watercourses
comprised a defensive ditch or indeed that the
eastern side of Beverley had any permanent
defences. On the southern side of the town the
alignment of boundaries near Keldgate bar (fn. 38)
suggests that the town ditch may have been
joined to watercourses that eventually drained
into Beverley beck; the course is, however,
conjectural and there is again no evidence of a
defensive ditch on that side of the town. (fn. 39)